From Prague to Vienna

So the other day, we were catching a train from Frankfurt to Dresden. Now it turns out this is the same train that goes from Frankfurt via Dresden and Prague, to Vienna. So this is the 3rd time we’ve been on this train. Not necessarily the exact same train, but the same route – EC173. And when we got on a Frankfurt way back when, a Canadian backpacker got on at the last second, asking if this was going to Prague, and hoping to be on the right train, so we had a good chat for a while. Imagine my surprise when I went for a little walk just now, to find the same guy sitting further down in one of the other first class carriages. What are the chances?

I have decided that this particular journey, between Prague and Brno, is possibly the nicest section of countryside I’ve seen. Once again it’s heavily wooded, and has these gorgeous little villages. At one point we passed what is obviously a popular swimming location – either a dam or a quarry we aren’t sure, but lovely green water and sunshine. Right next to train lines, but these things happen.

We’ve just left Brno, and in hindsight, this section of Czech republic doesn’t have the same mildly creepy feeling we felt when we first came in. There’s still what I like to call urban wasteland – sections of large heavy industrial stuff, things like that. Not really liveable, but probably necessary to the function of society. The fields of what I suspect are corn, have these neat little patterns in them – could kind of look by crop circles but most likely made by vehicles. They are perfectly regular, and I think it’s used in the way we’d use fences to define paddocks, but who knows. Just one more little mystery.